Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We're not just trying to serve you good food. We're trying to make you go home and not be able to stop thinking about how smooth everything was, how good it was, how professional everybody was, how you felt like part of the family.

INTRO SONG 0:17

If you wanna hear about St. Louis, tune into the Bucketless Show Weekly. Hear what Marissa and Luke say. It drops every Wednesday. Got a dope new guest every single week. Buckle up for the ride. Who's it gonna be? Who's on the show today? They rap St. Louis. What to do in the loo on a late night? I maybe what to do on a date night. Yeah. Bucket list as you covered, they know what's going on. What's going on? They'll give you eight. 18 different things to do on 19. If you need one more to choose, yeah. The city, city, city is a place we call home. A place we call

Royal Banks of Missouri Sponsor Read

INTRO SONG 0:54

home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

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Welcome Shawn and Chef Marvion of Maci’s Prime Barbecue

SPEAKER_03 1:30

St. Louis, welcome back to another episode of the STL Bucketlist Show, highlighting the people, places, and events that make our city special. Two of those in the studio today met these guys. They catered our office a couple months ago. We had the whole upstairs smelling like brisket, some of the best turkey sides were unbelievable. And then we've had you guys out at Food Truck Friday a couple times. Um, and then most notably, um, connected with the Wash Eye Food Hall. So, and uh, you know, now that the Wash Hyde Food Hall is going to be opening, you guys are gonna be a key founding vendor down there. So I got Sean and uh Marvian of Macy's Prime Barbecue. Thanks for coming in the studio today, guys. Thanks for having us, brother.

Growing up on St. Louis backyard barbecue

SPEAKER_03 2:06

We appreciate you. So St. Louis is known for so much great barbecue. What made you first even have the idea to get into barbecue?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Uh so mine came from a family of barbecuers. Um, it's it's kind of the traditional St. Louis backstory, you know. You sit around the grill, you get your Weber out, you get some beers out, you sit around, make some pork steaks, put them in malls with the the Budweiser, um, old school St. Louis traditional barbecue. Um, didn't come from a lot of money. So we did that all the time. All the time. Um, and that was kind of the catalyst to uh, you know, we want to put our foot in the ring and show people what we can do. And then Chef Dean over here probably has a similar barbecue story with a slightly different higher end culinary twist. Yeah. So I'll let him explain that one.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

But of course, it's like since I was like a little kid, that's the only thing that brought the family together. So both sides of the family coming together based off of my granddad being at the grill, my mom at the grill. That's all that's all it was to it. You know, get the charcoal lit, pop a couple of beers, and everybody's coming

Chef Marvion’s culinary background

SPEAKER_02 3:15

in.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

So yeah, and then your culinary background goes way beyond just popping a couple beers and getting that. I know, I know we talked about it a little bit. So tell me about some of the spots that you worked at.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

So I worked at uh Sanctuary Camelback Mountain up in uh Arizona, Scottsdale, under Chef Bobank Mill and Atlandon Post. So I got a lot of exposure through them, met a couple of celebrity chefs and got to travel around Arizona and you know work at different kitchens. Came back, uh a great friend of mine, Jasmine Brooks, she had a restaurant called Nettie B's. Yeah, she wanted to kind of like revamp it. She was getting into the uh Sparta World uh shooting complex. So she called me in to help with our menu there, and we kind of like connected. And after that, it's kind of like I met Sean, and here we go with barbecue.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

So well, tell me about that. I mean, when did Macy start? When did you guys meet? Tell me about that that first that story because you you were in the auto body industry, obviously. I mean, you still kind of are. Um we just had a little incident and it happened right before the podcast today. Just can't get out of it. Somebody hit us outside the studio. But um, tell me about, you know, because obviously you're in the auto body industry, great bit, you know, great traditional business, hospitality, completely different ball game. You know, tell me about what made you. I mean, is it is it the love? It seems like when you're from what I can see, when you were out at Food Truck Friday, you're walking down, you're talking to customers, you like the hospitality part of it. And then it seems like you're obviously super, you were in the kitchen locked in all day. So, like you guys have a good dichotomy there. But how did you guys meet? And and when you brought him the idea, was it was he like, dude, like come on now? Like, you're about to start the start of the food truck.

The dad’s challenge that started Maci’s

SPEAKER_01 4:44

We're about to have a very fun, racially divided conversation for a second on this one. So uh Macy's actually started about eight years ago. Um, the the catalyst for Macy's was my father. Um, I walked in the house one day, he he kind of laid out a challenge, and I said, cool, challenge accepted. Um, that week I ordered a commercial smoker. Um, we got it about three weeks later, and then every Sunday at my house was brisket, ribs, pulled pork, turkey, ribeye. Whatever we were eating was smoked. Not all of it was good. Um, some of it was not good at all. Like smoked onions, it's not winning. Don't do it.

Fight night and the brisket that started a partnership

SPEAKER_01 5:26

And I trained professional Muay Thai fighters. One of the fighters, shout out Ray Mix. He just had a really good fight on uh the Fair Tech's fight USA card on Saturday that we had the privilege of being the first vendor allowed in to serve food at. Um Ray hit me up one day and was like, hey man, my brother's gonna be at the fights, he's a chef. Um I was like, oh, cool. So I was cornering him. They introduced um or Ray and who was the other one? It was Ray and somebody else with him that introduced us. But anyway, Ray introduced us. Um this is your brother. Yes, yeah, and uh and I invited uh the glorious chef dean over here to my house for uh for brisket.

SPEAKER_05 6:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

And he came over, took a bite of it, his eyes kind of rolled back in his head, big smile that you guys can see that he always has on. And and he looked at me and was like, Man, I'm gonna be honest. When you invited me to this, I was like, Oh, this ain't gonna be hitting on anything. We all know white people can't season food. And he ate it and was like, nah, we're we're doing this.

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Partners before the trailer even arrived

SPEAKER_03 6:59

the show notes. Or lots. When was that? How long ago was that?

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Oh, I was like three years. Yeah, it was quite a bit of a.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

And you kind of fell in love. You're like, oh man, like you hit like the equipment he had and all that. You just thought you were going to a little barbecue and you're just like, oh, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

I didn't know what I was walking into because when we first met within the first five sentences, he was just like, I want you to come to my house and try barbecue. Like, you know, just invited off rip. I was like, and then the shocker came because when I got there, I was actually early. So when we tasted the barbecue, I was like, Oh, this is amazing, bro. And then the rest of his family and friends came in and they were just like, Yeah, who's he? He was just like, Oh, he doesn't know this yet, but he's my new business partner. Yeah, and I kind of like choked up. I was like, wait, wait, we didn't talk anything, we didn't talk numbers. Yeah, he was like, I got this trailer coming, you know.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

So this was pre-trailer and everything. You were looking for some you were looking for a chef at the time and somebody to work with.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

No, no, honestly, I was I was just gonna do it. Yeah. Um, but whenever an opportunity falls in your lap, and especially when it's a really, really, really good opportunity, you'd be really stupid to to say no. Um, and with with his background, with his vision, with our visions aligning in what we want to accomplish in St. Louis on the barbecue side, um it it was just uh yeah, it's happening. As soon as he tried it and I saw his eyes roll back, I

Why Shawn won’t call himself a chef

SPEAKER_01 8:17

was like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

So what's some of the value that that Chef brings? Because obviously you came, you started out of a challenge. Obviously, you barbecued at your house, but you never worked in a restaurant or anything like that, at least that I know of.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

But um, I am actually educated in culinary. Okay. Um, I trained under Steven Burkle at a like co-op program in high school.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Um, and then I spent some time at Forrest Park. Um actually dropped out of the culinary program specifically to um get under the skin of my father, which again was the catalyst. So it's funny how the world just kind of revolves around things.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Um, so I I technically am a trained chef, but I will never call myself a chef because to me, a chef isn't, oh, I went to school for it. It's I went to school for it. I was taught how to do it. I was in the dish pit. I was a line cook. I was the saucier. I was the the sous chef. You went through all of the trials and tribulations. You had pots thrown at you, you had knives thrown on the ground because they weren't sharp enough. Like, I didn't do any of that. Um, so to me, I'm not a chef.

No sauce, no bread: the Maci’s philosophy

SPEAKER_03 9:26

But obviously have an understanding of it rather than, but then working with somebody that was in some high-level kitchens, you get to learn, like, oh, you can do that with a turkey. It's like, you know, when you think of turkey, it's like a salt pepper, throw it in there, done. It's like, oh, the stuff that you guys do, the no sauce barbecue. Because traditionally, St. Louis, you go to a barbecue restaurant, they have 25 different sauces out there: white barbecue, Carolina, mustard barbecue, spicy, sweet, all these different ones that you load up on a sandwich. And you don't even do really sandwiches either. Nope. Um, you know, no, like, so that's where it's like no bread, no sauce. You know, that's untrad not traditional when you think of barbecue because you get a plate with all this stuff on it. So walk me through that. I mean, because you refuse to do sauce, and if they do need sauce, you're like, we'll give you your money back, which hasn't probably happened yet.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

So no, that that has not happened. In two years, we've given two refunds. Um, one was an 80-year-old woman just said that it was too salty. I mean, all we use is salt and pepper, so it it probably could be too salty. Yeah, you know? Um, and then the other one was um, I don't even actually, it was something really stupid. I don't remember what it was.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Yeah, I think he ordered like a pound of brisket. We gave him a little bit more, but then he thought it was less, and we tried to scale it up and he didn't want it. So I was just like, okay. Like, I'll weigh it up for you.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Yeah, it was it was it was just uh one of those like one off. Yeah, it's easier here, just be happy, we're good. Yeah, okay. Um but that's it in the two years. As far as the no sauce, we we want to take the crutch away. Um I don't care what you're making, I don't care who you are, if you put two pounds of sugar on anything, it's gonna taste good, right? Um why you shouldn't need it. If you buy quality meat, if you put quality ingredients on it, um, if you're taking the time to do it, how it should be done, if you're holding it how it should be held, if you're giving it the love and the passion that it deserves to get, you don't need sauce. Um and the reason, the number one reason we've heard in the thousands of guests we've served in the past couple years is well, everybody else's is dry. We need the sauce because it's dry and that makes it edible.

Why turkey is the most underrated barbecue meat

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Um, turkey's the number one culprit of that. Yeah, of course. Our favorite thing to give out samples of is turkey. If I give you a sample of turkey, I promise you you're gonna be buying a portion of turkey.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

And that's usually something people never order at barbecue restaurants, too. Correct, right? It's like the it's the forgotten, it's the forgotten meat.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

And in our opinion, turkey's probably the best. It's the cleanest slate, it's the cleanest flavor, it's fantastic when done right. Especially with the smoke, yes. Yeah, you know.

The wood and smoke behind the flavor

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Um but our our ideology runs deep in the only thing that we want to do is put out the highest quality of everything we can down to the wood we use. Our wood never sees dirt, it is never stacked in a dirt pile with grass growing out of it or anything like that. Um, it's imported once a once a month from Texas. We get about 4,000 pounds. It's dry-aged or it's cured um for 24 months, and then they kiln dry it to three and a half to five percent moisture to our spec. Um and a lot of people comment they're like it it doesn't have a bitter, doesn't have a bitter flavor. Um, it's because of the wood. The wood smoke is everything. Yeah, the wood's an ingredient. You have to treat it like that. You don't think about that either.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

You know, you just think smoke creates something, and it's just random smoke just blowing on food, doesn't you know? Yeah, that that's uh and then what about the bread?

A sandwich coming to the food hall?

SPEAKER_03 12:52

No bread?

SPEAKER_01 12:52

No, no, no. So so there may be a sandwich. There may be a curveball coming to the the food hall that'll be opening in a a little bit here. Yeah, um, but if we do decide to go that route, it's gonna be to our standard. Um, we'll buy everything we need to have a little micro bakery and and we'll do it all in house, start to finish. Um haven't decided if we're gonna do it yet. Yeah. We'll see.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Yeah, no, that's exciting. So to walk me through, you know, the passion of barbecue. So were you you mentioned you liked barbecue, and obviously growing up, I mean everybody in St. Louis, you you think of the Weber, it's the Weber grill. My dad has it. We had the little mini one when we go on the camping trips, and I still have the little mini that I used to, I got one right outside in the driveway where when we barbecue here, I got the Weber, the charcoal. My guy's over at Rockwood Charcoal, one of my good buddies, Jonathan, who does Rockwood Charcoal, is the best charcoal, I think, in St. Louis. Um, we get that over at Boyard's, which is a great meat market right down the street here in Maplewood as well. There's so many butcher shops popping up, you know, as well that are craft butcher shops which weren't around 15 years ago. You'd go to Schnooks and grab what you thought was a grass-fed, whatever, whatever. But like now we have these shops that you can get. So it seems like the barbecue industry, especially during the pandemic, a lot of people were doing it at home. They're watching videos, making TikToks. Were you barbecuing a lot? Because you mentioned you worked at in Arizona. I didn't, I I would I figured that would be more traditional, fine dining. Well, yeah. But cooking over fire.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

So as soon as I got out there, actually, in within three weeks, I went to go buy a grill, which would give me a Weber. And honestly, I was out on the patio barbecuing. And I remember the uh property manager came out. He was like, Hey, are you barbecuing? I was like, Yeah. I was like, I'm not am I not supposed to be doing it? She was like, No, I just smelt it over the other side. I didn't know who was barbecuing. I was like, You can come get a plate, you know. So we I we used to barbecue every weekend, rain, slime, seat, or slow. It was just like we always barbecued, it didn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

So and then when you got you guys met with Sean, you were over at his house. So how soon after you guys meeting? So you met at the fights when you were just you just got introduced and you heard he was a chef, and you're like, hey, come over, tried the barbecue. How soon after that did you guys start working together? And then you mentioned that the trailer was already on the way.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Yeah, the one that you have now, the big boy. Correct. Yeah, and that's another thing I want to touch on. You went big with everything. I mean, you got the biggest trailer, you got, I mean, a food truck friday, I can barely have you guys there because it's 70 feet long.

Swade Dispensary Sponsor Read

SPEAKER_03 15:11

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Building the 70-foot trailer

SPEAKER_03 15:35

Um, but you know, obviously the the trailer, when you walk into the trailer, you feel like you're at like a Ramsey kitchen. I mean, everything's just clean, stainless steel. I mean, you guys went all so you invested a lot just to get this thing rolling. It wasn't like, hey, let's get the grill, hook it on the back of the truck, and you know, get it going. So walk me through how quick since you guys met to where Macy's was actually serving food out of the trailer.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

So so the trailer was purchased. Um, it took them roughly 18 months to build it. I met him probably about eight months into that process. Um, so he did like I didn't have photos to show him because they had never sent me anything. I just had an invoice that was paid. So like I was like, dude, it's paid for here. That's that's all I can show you right now. And I was like, it should be really nice. Yeah, we'll find out together. Yeah. Um, and come to find out it was not really nice. We had a lot of stuff to fix.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Yeah. So we're trying to get down to fundamentals and procedures so it won't be too much crossing, so we can get out the food as fast as possible, which is why we have less than a minute serve times. Yeah. It was like, he was like, Hey, you want to walk me through this, how the kitchen runs? I'm like, all kitchens run different. And I never worked on a truck. But um, seeing how the outlay was, I'm like, oh, this is the industrial kitchen. Like, we can do this. Let's like let's go. So it um ironically, we started the weekend after my son was born. So as soon as he was born, I'm like, it's go time. No looking back, let's do it. Yeah. And um, here we are today, you know.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

So now everything you remember is like based off when he was born. It's like it's easy to remember the days. It's so easy, yes. For him. Not so easy for me. Yeah, but that was probably tough too. I mean, having a newborn and then you know, operating the truck. And some when you first start the truck, those nights are those days are long. Sometimes they're slow, sometimes there's shit happens, and you know, it's just like that. So how uh I mean, you guys seem like right now you have this smooth runned operation, but obviously we don't, you know, we know we don't know everything that goes on behind the

From trailer to food hall without losing the experience

SPEAKER_03 17:26

scenes. But um to get to go from truck to now brick and mortar, what made that decision for you guys? Because it seemed like you you when we met, you were interested in brick and mortar. This was even before you knew about the food hall. So, how uh how what's the evolution gonna look like from the experience that they get on the trailer that they are gonna get actually in in the food hall?

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Um, so that that I'll speak on. There will never be a change. The the Macy's brand is built around highest car highest quality food, highest quality customer service. Um, and we want to be the the most exclusive barbecue experience in St. Louis. That is very important to us fundamentally. Um, we're not just trying to serve you good food, we're trying to make you go home and not be able to stop thinking about how smooth everything was, how good it was, how professional everybody was, how you felt like part of the family. Um, and that carries over to once a year we do a guest appreciation where we give our entire menu away for free. Um you know, we we can't be where we are doing what we love to do if it's not for the customers that that give us the love, right? Um so as far as we're concerned, they're part of the Macy's family. And if you look at our post on Facebook and things like that, um it's family oriented. It's not just a generic, oh, you and your friends like ribs, which one's gonna eat sauced or not sauce today? It's hey, get your family, come be a part of our family. We want to share our experience with you. Um, and that's how it should be. You know, everybody's tighter on money now than what they were a couple years ago. Um, and you have 50 options in barbecue in St. Louis, we firmly believe that we're the highest quality option, period, non-negotiably. Um but the customers will tell you that nobody offers the feeling that we give you. Um, and that's in our opinion, that's probably why we've grown as fast as we have and as consistently as we have. Um we don't hide anything, we don't sugarcoat anything, um, and we stand on this is what we are. We're not for everybody, and that's okay. But if we are for you, you welcome to the family. And I promise you will never look back. Um, so that experience from the trailer to the food hall, it's gonna be as cohesive as you've ever seen in your life. Um the trailer is gonna slow down for the next couple months while me and him get all of the processes completely perfected or as much as you can at

Building the team

SPEAKER_01 19:53

the food hall. Yeah. Um, we already have some fantastic members that will be joining us at the food hall. Ironically, his brother's one of them that introduced us. So again, it's a circle. What goes around comes around, you know? Um and the the biggest criteria for us is that they have a positive attitude um that they leave any BS that they may have at home, which in the the hospitality industry is hard to do. Yeah, you know. Um we want every customer, good, bad, ugly, and different, to have an experience that they can't stop thinking and talking about. And that's that's the catalyst for us. Yeah. So if you have anything to add, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

But I mean, our motto has always been 1% better each day. You know, every night we have a little breakdown as far as how the day went, what could be going smoother. Like we break down numbers, and I don't on top of that, we think about the customers too. If there was a customer there, and let's say we had like five to ten customers that mention, oh, we want this as a special, well, we know for a fact we're gonna keep it in the books so that way next time when we come out or we're next to the area, we can offer it. So our menu has always been catered to the customer wherever we went.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

Yeah, no, and that's and sometimes that's all not always best for business, too. And I feel like why we've gotten along so well is we do a lot of things because we understand that as a media company, our customers are the people that follow our page, but then also the people that the businesses that we feature and that we highlight. So it's like there's a lot of things that we do that aren't the best business decision. And that's where I mean, when we've met, I mean, even you guys catering for us and donating thousands of dollars worth of food in your time, doing that has now turned into all these other opportunities that we've like I just talked to him before that's like, oh, now a referral. You know, if I never actually experienced your food and didn't know you, then how could I refer you to another person, to another person, to another person? And you didn't you lost money that day, but then all the it all comes back. And I think that customer service is something that there's a lot of places in St. Louis that do a really good job of it, but it gets hard to control as you scale, you know. And and there's a lot of places that, especially in your direct industry that I visited 10 years ago. Ago and I was like, wow, like this is cool. Like the spot, the stuff that they were wearing, the swag that they had, the people that were working the line. But then you go there now and it's not that same experience. So that's the as you scale, those are some of those growing pains that you'll eventually face. But it seems like that if you as long as you guys are on the same page and it seems like your hands always gonna be in it, um, then you're always gonna have that. So I I know I'm gonna go down to the food hall and I'm gonna see this dude walking around handing out samples and stuff like that. And uh and I know that the food haul model, a lot of that, all that's gonna be still cooked trailer and then brought in to sell out and stuff like that. So same, same equipment, same everything. So because it'd be it'd be hard to be able to get that the smoke, you'd have to be cooking out back and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

So

The original food truck park plan

SPEAKER_01 22:41

yeah, and that's in in the city, that's actually really difficult. Um, I don't know all the hoops you have to jump through because I I was actually never interested in doing Macy's brick and mortar ever. Um, we the goal for us initially was to open our own food truck park. Yeah, um, we started with Macy's. Uh, we were gonna do another trailer at actually about this exact time. Yeah. Um, and then in the next couple of years, we were gonna have five to six more, and we were gonna offer a food truck park that was all our food that we could guarantee would be the highest quality we could in several different genres of food um with an outdoor entertainment area. The whole thing was planned out.

SPEAKER_05 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

And then the brick and mortar came along. I talked with him about it, and then we scrapped that whole thing, and now we're going this route. But that's that's what's important with life and business, is you have to have a plan and a vision. Yeah, but you can't be so fixated on one thing that you miss opportunities when they present themselves.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

Right. So Yeah.

What they’re most excited about at the food hall

SPEAKER_03 23:40

So what are you guys most excited about for being in the physical space? Because sometimes you're in the truck, you don't get to see the customers as much.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

So I love being in the back of the house. I'm doing a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 23:49

There's no back of the house in the food hall. Well, they'll see you, but they they can look right at you in the back.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

And I always love interaction, interactions with like customers. It's just for me, I get into this flow state to where when I'm in the back of the house, it's like it's my kitchen now. So I get to go ahead and have the procedures and things like that go as smoothly as I want. And then I get to make the adjustments as we go. Yeah. So um, you know, that's always been me, but I do have a lot of interactions with customers, and we have a lot of hilarious interactions, actually. It's it's always the question of who made this, and you know, the football.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

They come back after and want to go and talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yeah, and they a

“Who made this?” Customer stories

SPEAKER_01 24:24

lot of times we'll give samples, and I I'll let him tell the one from the galleria because it's probably the funniest we've ever had. Yeah, yeah. Um, but you know, we give samples, and I'm the one that gives out the samples. They don't see him, yeah. And then they'll see him, and then their whole everything about them as a person changes immediately. It's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

They were just talking to Sean, and I was just like, okay, yeah, they like the food. And they didn't say anything that would like be out of line or out of touch. But then um, I must have walked over and put the plate in front of Sean. And I was like, Oh, he made this. You made this, then you I was like, actually, it was Sean today. And then it was like, nah, bro, nah, you definitely made this. You put your foot in it. I was just like, nobody wants to believe us when I say that. And then there's some times where they would flip it and they were just like, oh, well, he cooked all the food, so I guess he don't have to work. And I'm just like, you know, we put 50-50 energy into this, so nobody's gonna know. Like, you can't tell the difference because of how we kind of hold in on it. And a lot of things, like, we got to do quality checks before anything goes out to where we both have to like it because I may like it, and then he may taste the difference, and then we may have to address that before service even starts. So we always want to be ready like 30 minutes to an hour before

The business side of running a food truck

SPEAKER_02 25:45

service even starts.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

And be dialed. And a lot of the work, like compared to another food truck, um, goes on the morning of or the night before. Day before. Day before with you guys. Because it's you know, a lot of that stuff is you know, 10, 15, 20 hours of work that goes into the three-hour shift that you're about to come serve. Yep. Um, where another truck might, you know, pull up and grill right on the spot, you know, make taco, whatever peat pizzas, whatever it is that you know, they're prepping their ingredients, but a lot of the cooking happens on the spot, which to each its own is that that creates a lot of stress too when it gets busy, you know, when you have to do that. And when you guys can serve people like that, you know, and sell and sell out quick and be able to project uh, I think barbecue restaurants are able to project a little bit more on like exactly your numbers compared to other restaurants they just pull up and they hope that you're gonna do well. And I know we met at the Food Truck Association and just trying to help some of these food trucks because it's a hard industry to be in, you know, establishing minimums, establishing contracts and all these different things because I had somebody at Food Truck Friday, didn't end up getting set up correctly, maybe didn't end up booking. They thought they booked, they prepped, but you know, now they have all this food. It's like, what do you do? You know, and and that's where like the business side of it. So you were in business before, obviously. So although it's a completely different industry, it's still people, processes, invoicing, payment. It's it's they're a lot more similar than we probably think, you know.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Yeah, so we we are very, we are very adamant about running the best business we can that happens to entertain guests and serve food. And I think when you have that ideology first, it helps with a lot of the the nonsense.

Upshot Coffee Sponsor Read

SPEAKER_03 27:18

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Professionalism, referrals, and the food truck community

SPEAKER_03 27:53

in the game.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

You know, actually, due to the food hall opening, this is the first time we've ever had to pull out of events ever. Rain, sleep, snow, shine, it didn't matter. We were showing up.

SPEAKER_04 28:03

Yeah. I'll broke.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

But now, now next week we've got some inspections that came up that we can't we can't do anything about them. They're like, hey, this is when they are. So we had to pull out of two events next week. Um, sorry, Kimswick. We still love you. I swear to God, we still love you guys, but we we couldn't we couldn't do anything about this one. Um and you know, even with that, I found out about it yesterday. They heard about it yesterday. So we're not waiting till the last minute, we're not no calling, no showing. We're we've never left anybody hanging. Yeah. Um, and when you when you run a business like that, people see it. Um, you know, and we've had a lot of referrals from people that have never had our food ever. They're like they were here 30 minutes early, we're vegetarian, so we did obviously we didn't eat anything from them, um, but they were super professional, they helped us set the event up whenever they had stuff on the smoker. There's no reason not to do that. You know, and and it even goes down to we support all the other trucks as well. You know, if we're at a food truck Friday, we'll go down the line and as long as the line's not stupid long for the truck, we'll buy food from every single person there. There's no reason not to. You know, there's enough money, there's enough people don't be don't be that guy. You know? Um and I think that's that's a big thing that's missing in the food truck world is a lot of people want to look at each other, you know, the taco trucks. I think there's more taco trucks or burger trucks than any other genre of food in the the mobile world, right? Um they're like, oh, why isn't there a taco truck here? They're competition. Do you serve the exact same food? Do you serve the exact same bottled sauces? Probably not. So sell to your strong point.

Why free samples pay off

SPEAKER_01 29:47

You know? Um, and our big thing is samples. Back to your, you know, bad business decisions. Um we give out samples nonstop. And everybody looks at us like we're crazy. Um but the only way for somebody to understand what we're doing is for them to touch it, feel it, taste it. Yeah. Umly way to do that is to give them a sample. Exactly. And it's probably 95, 96%. If we give a sample, we're selling a week.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

I mean, you go to Costco, one of the best businesses in the world. There's a reason that they give out samples there. It's not just to be there and waste money and give out free food, it's because you give a sample and then you make a sale, you know. And um, it's the oldest, you know, recipe in the book. But like you mentioned, I mean, let's just look at margin. It's like, okay, let's say we give it a hundred dollars worth of food for samples, but then you got a thousand dollars worth of orders from that. It's a 10x return. Yeah, you would buy that every single time. You know, stop. It's just a vending machine. So it's like, you know, you put put that in and you put that out, and at worst case, you're you're it's awareness. Going to Food Truck Friday, let's say, you know, let's say you didn't you didn't make what you wanted to make there, you met a bunch of new customers that are right down the street from where your brick and mortar is gonna be. So that's like every time you're out, it's not always, and that's why I I see not just food trucks, but it's like, oh, well, I'm not gonna do that event again because I didn't make this exact amount. And it's like every single event gives you the opportunity to create a private booking to meet a new customer and then network. I mean, that's that's why I think that what I love about Food True Friday is you got 20 other people that are doing the same thing as you, and we ended up making that connection. Um, we can't even actually talk about

New food hall vendor reveal

SPEAKER_03 31:19

it yet, but the new vendor that's gonna be coming out in the food hall that's getting announced next week that was through the news thing that you did with uh I think I think that was all that was also a referral from me.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Yeah, I was on their truck, yeah. Um, and I was like, hey, you know, they're looking for somebody else. I know that I I know that your husband.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:39

Well, we can talk about it now because the podcast is coming out, but uh, you know, 787 sub, that's their new concept that they're gonna be doing. So yeah. Um, so that's gonna great, like, bring this great flair to the food hall. And, you know, got to meet him last week. We did a video shoot and see that some of the sandwiches that he's doing are crazy. Um, so that's that was all through just walking around. If you were just in the truck, stressing out, trying to prep, getting there late to the event, you wouldn't have been able to meet anybody.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Yeah. And

Don’t carry a bad day into the next one

SPEAKER_01 32:03

you know, I I think I think what you harped on is very important. On the um, every opportunity is what you make of it. You know, if if you're only fixated on making five thousand dollars today, that's short-sighted. And short-sighted is basically blind. And if you're blind, you can't really go too far. You know, so you have to look at everything. You know, we've done events where I've lost four, five, six thousand dollars, but we sold five catering events and we made thirty thousand dollars on the catering events. Yeah, is it ideal? No. Do you want to lose that money? No. But if I get so fixated on the money, you know what's not gonna happen? We're not gonna get the catering job. So you you just have to take the good with the bad. You know, there's always tomorrow, there's always the next customer. And if you get so fixated, say you have a bad customer, which we're blessed, and our our guests are fantastic, but say you have a bad customer or a bad interaction, if you fixate on that, the next 15 are gonna be just as bad. Right. And that's a big thing that we we tell our our workers or our our members is if you have a bad guest or you have a bad interaction, get off the window. Tell chef, tell me, tell the expo person, switch with somebody else, go to a role where all you're doing is yelling somebody's name out. Can't really screw that up. Um, give it five, ten, fifteen minutes and then go back. But never carry over bad, bad energy from

St. Louis hidden gems

SPEAKER_01 33:27

one to the next.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Yeah, no, that's facts. So I want to wrap by talking about St. Louis a little bit. So we like to highlight other places. So I know you don't always just eat Macy's barbecue. Um we rarely do. Yeah. Just to taste tests. Literally taste everything. Are there any hidden gems that we maybe haven't highlighted that you guys want to shout out? Any any businesses that are on your list that you're like, hey man, you gotta try this this place, or or just places maybe after a long week, a long shift, you're like, man, this is a place that I like to eat at. Um is there any that Sean we can start with you that that you want to plug? I mean, I'm sure that you're a big foodie, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Yeah, yeah. So so the problem with me is I eat so much other stuff that I don't always remember the names. Um there's there's an unbelievably good um like Middle Eastern restaurant off the St. Charles Rock Road. Um it's in the strip mall by the the Culver, or not the Culver's, but the um the Chick-fil-A. Yeah, it's just right back there, small spot. Um mind-blowing food. Mind-blowing food. And the the woman that runs the counter, yeah, Jesus. She, I mean, she is a workhorse. Um and on the barbecue side, you know, I I actually love going to three mix in uh West County. Jenna out there is is doing fantastic stuff. We went to Three Bay, and we've actually eaten at every barbecue spot in St. Louis, period, but um, we went to Three Bay and their pork steak was it simply put kind of life-changing. It's kind of like a Mexican flare smoked pork steak. Yeah, it was fantastic. Um and then a food truck that does great work that in my opinion gets way undersold is called koibecue. Um, I'm not a sauce person. Yeah, everything that they do is gonna be more like backyard style, so it comes sauced. Yeah, but he cooks everything almost flawlessly. Yeah. If there weren't sauce, I'd be like, yes, sir. Yeah. Um, so I think you know, those are all spots that that should have a little like Esther's Persian cafe or Esther's. Yeah. Oh my god. That's a hidden gym. Oh, God, that place is good. And then they make uh she has like this lemon, hibiscus, raspberry. I don't even know what it was, but God, it was good.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

Kebabs, I mean all types, like the salads that she does. I'm looking at her menu, garlic pickles.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

And they're all everything is made in that building. Baklava, like 100% stark defendants. Lemignon kebabs. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Chicken, I mean, I love a chicken kebab, right? It's so good. That's one that we might need to check out. That's uh those small little shops, especially out in the county that are in strip malls, you never think of them because you can't see them. You know, if you know, you know. You know, once you go there once, you've probably been there a bunch of times.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Yeah. Now I'm hoping that it doesn't get sold out now, so y'all better calm down. But the food is the food is fantastic.

Chef Marvion’s favorite spots

SPEAKER_03 36:12

Yeah. What about you? Are there any spots that you love? Yeah. That you missed when you were out of town and you came back, and you're like, man, these places.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Um actually, they're all kind of like new to me. Yeah. So um there was smoking bones. Me and Sean went out there. Yeah, and uh the chicken wings, I was like, oh, wait a minute, this this is surprising, you know? And then um, what is it called? STL Toasted. Oh, yeah. So my first time, yeah. My first time was um, I would say when we went out to Forest Park for the Fujak Friday. Yeah, and then we went over there. I was just like, Well, this chicken cutlet is huge. Didn't know what to expect, but it was amazing.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

Yeah, and he started just doing the raves. He did like toasted rabs that were like this big, filled with the best Sicilian sausage, and and then he does like that, you know, Nutella bananas and stuffed inside there. He started at the foundry out of a food hall. Yep. Yeah, and then he's got a cool little kitchen over there. We we did a video with him and he sold out for like six days in a row. Because we did that video of the sandwiches. So it's your fault. You're the reason we can probably that's rude. It was lined up at the course. Oh, it was bad. Dude, he like literally had to take a vacation. I mean, he because he's the only he's prepping. Prepping those cutlets are a lot of prep, and then you sell 200 of them in the two hours, yeah, and then you start prepping again right after the shift for the next day. He's like literally put a sign on his door, he's like, guys, I'm taking a couple days. I gotta get my mind right. My hand hurts, my arms hurt.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

I can't, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

Um, that's a good spot, yeah. And that's just a one, I mean, he has obviously as a team, but like that's his passion, just making those Italians and being on the hill, just being a classic location to sell Italian sandwiches.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

And his was it Scratchatella or Scotchatella bread?

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Yeah, yeah. It kind of reminds me of Focaccia. I just cannot remember the name at all, but that bread is amazing.

SPEAKER_03 37:46

Yeah, no, that's cool. Any other any other spots that you've tried recently? Oh you guys go out to eat a lot together, or you try to?

SPEAKER_02 37:52

See, here's the thing we do, but when we go, Sean is going to order the entire menu to taste everything.

SPEAKER_03 37:58

Yeah, and you're like, bro, I can't do that today.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

Like, wait, he'd be like, taste this. I'd be like, wait, I'm getting full. What I ordered, I just gotta put this in a box.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

But and then box it all up for the fam.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Yeah. Um, Zito's Deli out in South County. Yep. I always go out there, like at least twice, twice a week almost. And then um, actually, it's one across the river that I go to more often. It's called Chef's Kitchen. It's in Cahokia. But I mean, the food is phenomenal. I love the lamb chops. So you're a big sandwich guy. He likes well, they have like lamb chops like burgers, pasta, and things like that. What's that one called? Chef's Kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. It's out there off Jerome Lane in Cahokia.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

I haven't been there yet. Yeah. It's pretty good.

Food hall opening dates and wrap-up

SPEAKER_03 38:37

That's a good spot. Well, fellas, I appreciate you guys for coming on and super excited. I'm gonna be seeing you guys in a couple weeks. We're gonna do some photo shoots at the food hall. Um, and then November 5th, media night, grand opening. There's gonna be 250 influencers out there filming. Um, so that's November 5th, and then November 6th, we're been cutting. Um we'll we'll talk. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Our calendar is just your calendar's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 38:59

I mean, that's a month away. That's a it's a month away. We'll figure it out. So all right, sounds good. Well, we'll see you guys, uh, we'll see you guys at the food hall and uh excited for for everything that's to come. So appreciate you guys and see you next week.